European Local Democracy Week 14-20 October

The “European Local Democracy Week” is an annual European event where local authorities from all the 47 member states of the Council of Europe organise public events to meet and engage with their citizens on issues of current interest. The aim is to promote and foster democratic participation at a local level. In 2013 it will officially take place between 14 – 20 October and the leading theme will be “Active citizenship: voting, sharing, participating. On this occasion the No Hate Speech Movement will aim to raise awareness of the risk of hate speech, online and offline, threatening the cohesion of local communities and to mobilise support for local democracy and call for local offline and online citizenship as forms of combating hate speech in all its expressions. You can read further details about the Local Democracy Week here.

1. Report local incidents of hate speech on the Hate Speech Watch: for example, hate speech against a group in a local community, or hate speech by a public official in a local community etc.

2. Prepare videos featuring policy-makers and civil society activists on good practices and actions taken to combat hate speech, racism and discrimination on the local level. Upload these videos to the No Hate Speech Movement website.

3. Come and join the Discussion section, where online activists invite you to debate on the role of local democracy in combating hate speech. If you want to learn more about what you can do join the discussion forum called Local Democracy and Hate Speech.

4. Make your own poster that you can print and place somewhere visible next to your home or organisation to spread a message of participation and local democracy. Share photos of your posters and messages on the No Hate Speech Movement website.